Star Tribune
John ‘Jack’ Dryer, coach and teacher to many, dies at 91
The tools of John “Jack” Dryer’s trade were his stopwatch and whistle.
Dryer was known to many as a devoted coach and physical education teacher who went out of his way to keep students and athletes on the straight and narrow with his no-nonsense approach and ability to see the good in everyone. Dryer, a well-rounded athlete himself, was also the clock operator for Vikings home games for several decades.
He died Dec. 30, at the age of 91.
John William Dryer was born June 13, 1931, in Minneapolis. He attended North High School where he was a track, football and basketball star known for his speed. Newspaper clippings regularly praised Dryer’s athletic feats.
In a 1948 telling of a 13-0 football victory against West High School in front of more than 10,000 fans, Minneapolis Tribune sportswriter Tom Briere wrote that “Jackie Dryer wowed ’em again” and “It was Dryer here and Dryer there: Dryer scoring North’s second touchdown in the third quarter on a 56-yard end run, Dryer punting, Dryer intercepting passes.”
During that time, Dryer also met his high school sweetheart Jean. They would later raise a family, and they were married for 69 years.
Dryer attended the College of St. Thomas, but after a semester he changed his mind and transferred to the University of Minnesota to focus on his track career. However, Dryer decided to put his athletic and academic plans on hold early in his time at college to enlist in the Navy during the Korean War.
After four years serving primarily on the USS St. Paul, Dryer returned to Minnesota and graduated with a teaching degree.
Dryer’s first teaching job was in Faribault, Minn. He later would move his family to Bloomington and teach physical education at the newly built Olson Middle School, where he would spend the rest of his career until he retired after 30 years. Dryer also served as a coach for track, basketball and football at Olson and Jefferson High School.
“He was a fair guy, but he demanded excellence and respect,” his son Dan Dryer said.
Some of his advice would be “Look sharp, act sharp, and you will play sharp,” and “Remember who you represent.”
Dryer served as one of the disciplinarians at the middle school, attended by his son Tom Dryer and his siblings, which turned out to be a blessing and a curse.
“If you were caught doing something and you got the whistle, there was likely going to be push-ups in your future,” Tom Dryer laughed.
But Dan Dryer also remembered how he and his brothers would connect with their father over sports, often over long conversations after dinner.
Dryer was also known to help steer students down the right path. Some ended up playing sports when they were young and growing up to coach and teach themselves.
“His legacy was reaching a lot of students and athletes and making a real difference in their lives,” Dan Dryer said.
Another memory that Dryer’s children won’t soon forget is that for more than 30 years, John Dryer served as the timekeeper or clock operator for Vikings home games. Tom and Dan Dryer said their dad was given two tickets per game as payment, which allowed them to tag along to games at Metropolitan Stadium. For a time, they were allowed to stay with their father on the sidelines.
“It was just pretty neat,” Tom Dryer said. “When it was cold we would go and sit in the box and get a hot dog.”
Dryer is survived by his wife, Jean, children Pat (Kelly), Dan (Janet), Kitty (Kevin) and Tom as well as grandchildren and a great grandchild. Services have been held.
Northern State 35, Concordia (St. Paul) 34: Wyatt Block’s 2-yard TD run and the PAT with 10 seconds remaining lifted the Wolves past the host Golden Bears. Block’s touchdown capped an 11-play, 72-yard drive by the Wolves, who trailed 24-7 in the second quarter. Jeff Isotalo-McGuire’s 34-yard field goal with three minutes, 32 seconds remaining gave the Golden Bears a 34-28 lead.
Winona State 31, Bemidji State 28: Cade Stenstrom rushed for two TDs and passed for 150 yards and a TD to help the host Warriors outlast the Beavers. Stenstrom’s 1-yard TD run and the PAT with two minutes, 10 seconds remaining gave the Warriors a 31-21 lead. The Beavers responded with an 11-play, 93-yard drive to pull within 31-28 with 18 seconds remaining but the Warriors recovered the ensuing kickoff.
Div. I-AA
North Dakota State 59, Murray State 6: The top-ranked Bison built a 42-3 lead in the first half and went on to defeat the host Racers in Murray, Ken. CharMar Brown ran for 97 yards and three TDs for the Bison.
South Dakota State 20, South Dakota 17 (OT): Amar Johnson’s 3-yard TD run in overtime lifted the host Jackrabbits to the victory. The Coyotes opened the OT with a 40-yard field goal.
Youngstown State 41, North Dakota 40 (OT): The host Penguins went first in OT and scored and then stopped North Dakota’s two-point conversion to hold on for the victory. The Penguins sent the game into OT on a 35-yard field goal with 12 seconds remaining.
Div. III
Augsburg 35, St. Olaf 34 (OT): The host Auggies stopped a two-point conversion in overtime to outlast the Oles. The Auggies went first in the overtime and scored on a 25-yard pass from Ryan Harvey to Tyrone Wilson. It was Harvey’s fifth TD pass — the fourth to Wilson. After the Auggies’ PAT, the Oles scored on a 25-yard TD pass from Theo Doran to Braden Menz. But the Oles’ pass attempt for the conversion failed.
After splitting their two-game West Coast trip to begin the season, the Wolves improved to 2-1 with a 112-101 win over Toronto in their home opener. It was a wire-to-wire win that featured some strong bursts of play from the Wolves and other times when their decision-making was suspect. But those moments when they were on, specifically the start of the game and most of the third quarter, were enough to carry them against a shorthanded Raptors team that was without RJ Barrett, Bruce Brown and Immanuel Quickley.
Julius Randle had 24 points while Anthony Edwards had 24 on 21 shot attempts. Donte DiVincenzo had 16 off the bench. Nickeil Alexander-Walker left the game in the fourth quarter and did not return, though he was in the bench area for the final minutes after going to the locker room briefly.
The Wolves’ starting lineup had its best stretch of basketball on the season after that unit started off sluggish in the first two games. Mike Conley, who was 3-for-16 to open the year, hit two early threes to set the tone, though Conley would finish 2-for-8.
Donte DiVincenzo replaced him at point guard halfway through the quarter and continued the hot shooting from the point guard slot with three threes of his own. The Wolves forced five Toronto turnovers and had a 32-18 lead after one.
Coach Chris Finch toyed with some different lineup combinations in the first half as he had Conley and DiVincenzo begin the quarter together while having Joe Ingles run the point later in the quarter. It led to an uneven second, and the Wolves led 56-44 at halftime.
But the Wolves played inspired coming out of the break. Jaden McDaniels, who didn’t take a shot in the first half, had nine points in the opening minutes of the third. Edwards hit a pair of threes as they pushed their lead to 22. The Wolves weren’t sharp closing the night, and the Raptors had the game within right inside of two minutes, but the Wolves had built enough of a cushion.
Rudy Gobert. Gobert had 15 points and 13 rebounds and was the beneficiary of some lobs from his teammates like Edwards, Conley, Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Joe Ingles. Gobert also finished with four blocks.
Gobert had two blocks on one possession in the fourth quarter that got the crowd off its feet and Gobert pounding his chest. Gobert blocked D.J. Carton and Jamison Battle.
Star Tribune
Trump denigrates Detroit while appealing for votes in a suburb of Michigan’s largest city
NOVI, Mich. — Donald Trump further denigrated Detroit while appealing for votes Saturday in a suburb of the largest city in swing state Michigan.
”I think Detroit and some of our areas makes us a developing nation,” the former president told supporters in Novi. He said people want him to say Detroit is ”great,” but he thinks it ”needs help.”
The Republican nominee for the White House had told an economic group in Detroit earlier this month that the ”whole country will end up being like Detroit” if Democrat Kamala Harris wins the presidency. That comment drew harsh criticism from Democrats who praised the city for its recent drop in crime and growing population.
Trump’s stop in Novi, after an event Friday night in Traverse City, is a sign of Michigan’s importance in the tight race. Harris is scheduled for a rally in Kalamazoo later Saturday with former first lady Michelle Obama on the first day that early in-person voting becomes available across Michigan. More than 1.4 million ballots have already been submitted, representing 20% of registered voters. Trump won the state in 2016, but Democrat Joe Biden carried it four years later.
Michigan is home to major car companies and the nation’s largest concentration of members of the United Auto Workers. It also has a significant Arab American population, and many have been frustrated by the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s offensive in Gaza after the attack by Hamas against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
During his rally, Trump spotlighted local Muslim and Arab American leaders who joined him on stage. These voters ”could turn the election one way or the other,” Trump said, adding that he was banking on ”overwhelming support” from those voters in Michigan.
“When President Trump was president, it was peace,” said one of those leaders, Mayor Bill Bazzi of Dearborn Heights. ”We didn’t have any issues. There was no wars.”
While Trump is trying to capitalize on the community’s frustration with the Democratic administration, he has a history of policies hostile to this group, including a travel ban targeting Muslim countries while in office and a pledge to expand it to include refugees from Gaza if he wins on Nov. 5.
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